"Knock, knock!"
I knocked on the office door. I could faintly hear voices discussing something inside. One of them was clearly our homeroom teacher, Chabashira Sae. The other sounded younger and more lively. Who was it again?
"Come in." After hearing the permission, Hirata and I exchanged a glance, then I pushed open the office door.
Once we stepped inside, we saw Ayanokoji Kiyotaka and Horikita Suzune standing in front of Chabashira Sae, the three of them discussing something. Beside them was a woman dressed in pink casual clothes. Judging by her looks, she was undoubtedly beautiful.
"You're here. Come over. As for you two, you can go back for now."
I didn't know what Chabashira Sae had said to Horikita and the others, but the unmistakably troubled look on Horikita's face suggested it wasn't anything good. By contrast, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, who stood behind her, looked completely calm.
It seemed the cause had something to do with Ayanokoji after all.
As we passed each other, he met my gaze, but all I could make out on his face was a trace of resignation.
Chiba Yu nodded indifferently, then walked over to Chabashira Sae with Hirata.
"Teacher, did you call for us?" Hirata spoke first.
"Oh my! Two students just left, and now two more have arrived—and they're both handsome guys! Sae, are you thinking of starting your own boy band behind the scenes? I'm telling you, as a teacher, you absolutely can't—ow!"
Thud!
Yep, that sounded like a solid hit.
With a loud bang, Hoshinomiya, who had just been chattering away with her outrageous jokes, immediately crouched down, clutching her head, tears welling in her eyes.
"That was so mean, Sae!"
"Heh. That's what you get for spouting nonsense and flirting with my students."
Hoshinomiya didn't like that one bit. She jumped to her feet and retorted indignantly, "I wasn't flirting! I was just worried you'd go astray, Sae."
"Try acting like a teacher, Hoshinomiya. All right, you two, don't just stand there. Let's talk in the back."
After scolding Hoshinomiya, Chabashira Sae led the two of us toward the back, paying no mind to Hoshinomiya, who stayed where she was and continued to complain about something.
The two teachers' antics left Chiba Yu and Hirata speechless, but knowing their place, they very considerately refrained from interrupting and quietly waited for the farce to end.
"Sit down." Once she had brought us to the back, Chabashira Sae told us to take a seat. Neither of us objected, but unlike Chiba Yu, who remained calm, Hirata was the first to grow restless.
"Chabashira-sensei, could you tell us what's going on?"
"Don't worry. I didn't call you here because you did something wrong. Well... that's not exactly right, either. How about you take a look at this first?"
As she spoke, Chabashira handed Hirata a sheet of paper. Chiba Yu leaned over to look, and the words "Quiz Results" came into view.
At the very top was Horikita Suzune's name, followed by Yukimura and the others.
"Teacher, our scores should all be above the passing mark. Is there some kind of problem?"
"Click!" Chabashira Sae put a cigarette between her lips, lit it with a lighter, and took a deep drag before exhaling a cloud of white smoke.
"Indeed, all your scores are above the class passing mark. There shouldn't be a problem in principle. But Hirata, take a careful look at Chiba Yu's results."
"Hmm..." Hirata searched down the page and finally found Chiba Yu's name in the middle of the class rankings. "Teacher, Chiba's score looks perfectly normal, doesn't it?" He looked at the score of 60 and didn't understand what Chabashira Sae was getting at.
"Oh? True, if you look at it normally, there might not be anything strange about that score. But what would you think if I showed you this?"
As she spoke, Chabashira Sae took another sheet of paper from behind her. Hirata took it and looked it over. His eyes immediately narrowed, as if he'd just seen something unbelievable.
"This... Japanese, 60. Math, 60. English, 60. Social studies, 60... They're all 60?!" As Hirata read out each of my scores one by one, my desire to get out of there reached its peak.
"No, I think it was just a coincidence," I said flatly, but my words seemed utterly unconvincing.
"Heh. If getting 60 in one subject was a coincidence, what would you call getting 60 in every subject?" Chabashira Sae fanned the flames once again.
Hirata's eyes were full of disbelief. Even the hands holding the sheet trembled slightly, betraying his inner turmoil.
Despite learning something so shocking, he still managed to keep his expression under control. He simply glanced at Chiba Yu with curious eyes, then handed the sheet back to Chabashira.
"I'm sure Chiba had his own reasons for doing this, but I'm still grateful to you for telling me, Chabashira-sensei."
Seeing that Hirata remained unfazed, Chabashira watched him with interest, a faint smile on her lips.
"Indeed, everyone has the right to choose what they do. But Hirata, don't you think it's foolish for someone capable to hide their abilities?"
"I don't think there's anything wrong with that. And like I said, this time was nothing more than a coincidence." Having said that, Chiba Yu stood up. "If you only called us here to tell us something this pointless, I think I'll take my leave."
Without caring what Hirata thought, Chiba Yu left at once and shut the office door behind him.
"Chiba!" Seeing him leave, Hirata instinctively wanted to chase after him. But just as he was about to step out, Chabashira Sae's voice came from behind him.
"Hirata, you know why a cheetah usually doesn't use its full strength when chasing its prey, don't you?"
"...Because it doesn't think the prey is worth the effort, right?" Hirata replied bitterly, his back to Chabashira.
"It seems you understand. Hirata, I can tell you that this school has never had a Class D move up to Class A. But if you're serious about trying, then try to learn more about Chiba Yu. Perhaps he'll be the key to your rise to Class A."
Hirata paused, standing silently by the door. After a while, he slowly raised his head. His voice brimmed with unwavering determination. "If what you say is true, I'll try to change him."
If Chiba Yu had heard those words, he might well have gotten goosebumps.
But because of what Chabashira Sae had done today, his energy-saving lifestyle was destined to slowly slip away from him...